


but first, breakfast

by sabotenworld



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Office, M/M, can u believe panwink is a SIDE ship, i cant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-07 21:32:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14090088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabotenworld/pseuds/sabotenworld
Summary: Hyeongseob embarrasses himself on the very first day of his internship and finds someone to eat breakfast with.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a tweet I can't find rn. Please write more fics of this ship ;-;

Hyeongseob is terrible at waking up, but he is determined to make it to every day of his internship earlier than the schedule set for him. He convinced himself that it would be worth it afterwards, that if he did his absolute best he would be able to get a good job (or even land one at this company if he was extra lucky), as he rubbed out the sleep out of his eyes.

6:04am time in is what his time card says on his first day. Hyeongseob looks at it proudly as he waited for the elevator. His brand spanking new suit isn’t even making him break out into a sweat since he didn’t have to rush on the way to the pharmaceutical company he managed to land an internship position at, unlike almost every day of his high school life where he came to school out of breath and drenched in sweat.

It was a good start. This internship was going to be perfect.

Another person starts waiting for the elevator just when Hyeongseob worries that a ghost will get to him if he’s alone inside the elevator. It’s a boy around his age, tanned skin and in a new-looking suit. Hyeongseob finds himself staring at the boy blatantly as he the two of them hop into the elevator, wondering if the two of them would be in the same department together.

“Oh,” Hyeongseob exclaims when the two of them reach for the 8th floor button at the same time. He grins at the other boy. “Floor buddies!”

He realizes his brain to mouth filter failed him again when the boy gapes at him until they reach the 8th floor, and Hyeongseob awkwardly shuffles the opposite direction that the boy goes.

-

“Woong, help me find another place to do my internship at,” Hyeongseob wails into his mobile phone’s receiver. He’s lucky Euiwoong always woke up earlier than normal people who knew how to appreciate and savor sleep, and that he was younger than him so he had no choice but to listen to Hyeongseob’s early morning embarrassments.

“It’s not even 6:30 yet and you already did something impulsive? This is a new record.” Euiwoong yawns through the phone. “What is it?”

Euiwoong actually has the nerve to snicker at Hyeongseob’s predicament and Hyeongseob wishes his other, nicer friends woke up as early as Euiwoong so he could talk to them instead. No, wait. Justin would laugh even harder than Euiwoong and mention __floor buddies__ every day of his life. Sunghyuk would tease him about it too and Jungjung… Well, Jungjung would be nice and hug him and tell him he’s going to get over it, understanding the gravity of the situation. Hyeongseob’s one wish was that Jungjung woke up early __and__ wasn’t too busy exercising during mornings where Hyeongseob managed to embarrass himself.

“What if we’re at the HR department together?” Hyeongseob continues to whine to Euiwoong until the other boy decides he has to start working on one of his papers due next week. Who even works on papers mornings a week before they’re due? Supernerd Euiwoong, that’s for sure.

Having no one to complain to when Euiwoong decides he’s had enough of his complaining so early in the morning, Hyeongseob sits on the bench outside the HR department swinging his legs. He waits until the actual employees of the department come to work, and he’s shown inside the office by a very handsome and seemingly also very kind Hwang Minhyun.

Inside of the glass doors are several clean desks (aside from one that Minhyun frowns at and attempts to straighten out quickly) that are revealed when Minhyun switches on the lights. Hyeongseob is shown to the filing cabinets that he would be sorting out once it’s actually time to work, and the printers and the photocopying machines just down the hallway outside of the office.

Another intern comes just before the call time, wearing a pink turtleneck sweater with a blazer over it. Hyeongseob wonders how someone’s eyes could be that sparkly. Minhyun introduces him as Park Jihoon from a well-known university across town, and Hyeongseob is a little impressed.

A chubby-faced guy that looks remarkably like a dumpling comes in fifteen minutes after the start of the workday and Hyeongseob thinks he’s another intern, but Minhyun scolds him like he isn’t.

“Hey, Kim Jaehwan, why are you late again?” Minhyun asks sternly with his hands on his hips. “Didn’t I put you in charge of the new interns?”

Jaehwan grins at him like he’s done nothing wrong. “Sorry, hyung, I told you this shift was too early! Forgive me?”

Hyeongseob shrinks away in horror. Can he even say that to their supervisor?

“It’s fine, they’re always like that,” Sewoon who’s in charge of compensation and benefits assures him with a pat on the shoulder. He leans toward the two interns and beckons them to come closer. “They think we don’t know that the two of them are dating. You guys better knock before entering rooms around here if you don’t want to see anything.”

Oh. Workplace relationship. That was kind of interesting. Hyeongseob squeals a little inside when Minhyun ruffles Jaehwan’s hair after he scolds him.

-

“You know I was super early today and embarrassed myself,” Hyeongseob starts when he’s alone with Jihoon looking for several employees’ paper files. He does a lot of regrettable things on impulse, but at this point in his life he just takes it in a stride and uses this character trait as a way to make conversations with people. “I was at the elevator and a guy also gets in, and when we reach for the same button I yelled at him: __floor buddies!”__

That punchline does the job and Jihoon laughs, pulling out several folders from the filing cabinet they’re huddled together at. Hyeongseob thinks they can get along. “What did the guy say?”

“Nothing. He just kind of opened his mouth and stared at me in disbelief.” Hyeongseob laughs at himself. “I hope I don’t run into him again!”

“Tough luck, you probably will if he goes to the same floor,” Jihoon chuckles. “You guys are __floor buddies,__ remember?”

“Please be kind enough to hide me if we see him,” Hyeongseob says in jest. Jihoon punches him in the arm playfully and it kind of hurts, but he guesses the two of them are friends now if Jihoon can punch him that hard.

-

Time flies because the two interns are piled with a bunch of work to do until lunch time comes. Hyeongseob didn’t have any time to pack any lunch (he wouldn’t have anything to prepare anyway, because he couldn’t really do any cooking aside from the instant noodles which were the main source of nutrients in his broke college student diet), so he drags Jihoon to the company cafeteria which was strangely at the basement of the building.

Jihoon’s somewhat preoccupied with his phone during lunch time, and Hyeongseob chews his fried eggs and rice quietly as he watched the boy replying to texts from his apparently very clingy boyfriend. That is, until Jihoon’s name is called and to Hyeongseob’s horror, his __floor buddy__ is standing next to their table greeting Jihoon.

“Hey, is it your lunch time now?” Jihoon asks, making space for his friend and his friend’s friend to sit at their table. Hyeongseob wants to disappear from the face of the earth and go unnoticed for the rest of the day, but Jihoon remembers that he’s there. “Hyeongseob, these are Woojin and Haknyeon. We go to the same university. Mind if they sit with us?”

Hyeongseob can’t really say no if the two boys are already seated and have their lunch trays on their table, his floor buddy sitting diagonally across from him. He’s sure his ears are red again. “It’s fine.”

It isn’t fine. It’s very awkward and he’s feeling out of place with this group of friends that seemingly have known each other since they were children with the way they were acting. Hyeongseob usually was pretty good at talking to new people, except he feels shy around people he embarrassed himself in front of and literally __can’t__ be friendly right now. So he just sits there and eats his lunch quietly while Woojin and Haknyeon tease Jihoon for being such a whipped boyfriend for some freshman.

“He’s really cute and I can’t not reply to his messages, okay,” Jihoon hisses, cheeks flaming. Hyeongseob is glad he isn’t the only one embarrassed around here. “You guys just don’t have boyfriends,” Jihoon says to the two boys lamely, who laugh at him obnoxiously.

“This guy swears at us and is always low key trying to kill us but when his boyfriend’s around he’s suddenly the patron saint of kindness,” Haknyeon reveals to Hyeongseob. Hyeongseob can’t help but smile at Jihoon punching at Haknyeon’s arm. He catches Woojin staring at him but he looks away quickly, not ready to have a conversation about being floor buddies.

-

“Your friend was my floor buddy,” Hyeongseob tells Jihoon once they’re on the way to the office.

“What?” Jihoon asks distractedly, looking away from his phone screen which was filled with heart emojis. “Is it Woojin? It can’t possibly be Haknyeon because he would’ve already teased you at lunch today.”

“Yeah. Woojin.” Hyeongseob admits.

Jihoon bursts out laughter at that. “He didn’t even tell me, I’ll make sure to beat him up when I see him.”

“How come he didn’t mention it when we saw each other?” Hyeongseob wonders out loud as he and Jihoon entered the glass doors of the office.

Jihoon shrugs. “I dunno. Maybe he didn’t want to embarrass you? He’s considerate like that sometimes.” He scrunches his nose. “He likes to embarrass __me__ though. That asshole.”

-

Hyeongseob successfully gets through Day One of the internship without further incident. He thinks he probably filled up his quota of embarrassment for the whole week during that whole floor buddies mishap of his and will no longer have to worry about doing anything embarrassing for a while.

He sticks to his goal of being early to his internship every day, and so he decides to skip breakfast during his second day and check out if the company cafeteria was open this early. It is, and they have several cheap breakfast meals that make Hyeongseob’s stomach rumble. So he orders himself an eggs and bacon and fried rice meal and looks for a table.

The cafeteria is fairly empty, and he stops in his tracks when he sees Jihoon’s friend, Woojin, his __floor buddy__ , sitting at a table by himself eating breakfast. Hyeongseob takes a deep breath and walks up to him, deciding he would try and talk to him so he could get over his embarrassment and maybe become friends.

“Good morning,” Hyeongseob greets with fake confidence. Woojin looks up from his own plate of bacon and eggs. “Can I sit with you?”

The other boy nods and makes space for him at the table.

“You’re Jihoon’s friend,” Woojin says thoughtfully after he’s swallowed the bacon he was chewing. “Hyeongseob, was it.” He wasn’t really asking it, more like confirming what he already knew.

“Yep.” Hyeongseob smiles at him. “Ahn Hyeongseob.” He digs in to his own breakfast meal, filling his stomach with warmth and his heart with happiness at the grease he’s ingesting.

“I’m Park Woojin.”

The two of them eat in silence and Hyeongseob grows more anxious by the minute that he was being annoying again, but then Woojin takes a swig of orange juice and starts talking.

“We aren’t really floor buddies. I’m an intern at the finance department at the 6th floor.”

“Oh.” Hyeongseob laughs a little at that. “Sorry about that.”

Woojin waves him off. “It’s fine. I was just checking if Jihoon was already there. Of course he wasn’t. That guy never wakes up early for anything.” He cuts a sunny side up with his fork and Hyeongseob watches the yolk ooze out, creating a yellow river on Woojin’s plate. He decides that Woojin must be a good person if he likes his eggs runny.

“Why are you so early anyway?” Hyeongseob asks out of genuine curiosity.

Woojin shrugs. “It’s too much trouble to be late and I want to avoid having to rush.”

They chat for a little while, small talk about university and what they do at internship. Hyeongseob finds out that Woojin and Jihoon are really close, being friends since high school. They even used to be roommates but Jihoon started living with his boyfriend instead. Jihoon is apparently shit at waking up so Woojin never bothers with waiting for him. Haknyeon is a mutual friend they have from university who is also shit at waking up, so Woojin just comes to work alone. It’s a light-hearted conversation until Hyeongseob asks: “Why didn’t you tell them about that floor buddy incident?”

Woojin stares at him and Hyeongseob stares at Woojin’s empty plate in shame. “Because I didn’t know if you’d be embarrassed? Should I have told them?”

“No, no, I already told Jihoon before lunch yesterday.” Hyeongseob shakes his head before smiling at him. That was pretty considerate of Woojin. “Thank you.”

Woojin smiles at him, showing a snaggletooth that Hyeongseob finds rather cute.

 


	2. hyeongseob is a lightweight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hyeongseob notices that Woojin is boyfriend material.

Eating breakfast with Woojin becomes a regular thing. It’s a comfortable routine, and Hyeongseob is thankful that while his other friends would just tell him to shut up, Woojin doesn’t seem to mind him being so talkative so early in the morning. He also has gotten comfortable with Jihoon and Haknyeon during their lunch times together.

Woojin always comes to work earlier than Hyeongseob, and he’s been waiting for him lately at the cafeteria so they can buy food together instead of buying breakfast before Hyeongseob. Hyeongseob thinks Woojin must be one of the nicest people in the world if he delays breakfast just to wait for him.

“Morning,” Hyeongseob greets Woojin when he sees him sitting at a table at the cafeteria.

“Morning,” Woojin greets back before standing up so they could buy food. He looks great today, in a powder blue button-down and white slacks. “They have pork chop today so I think I’m going to get that.”

Hyeongseob perks up at that. “Same! Euiwoong always tells me it’s too early to be eating meat but it’s never too early for good food.”

They bring their trays to a table and sit down, Hyeongseob enthusiastically appreciating the food. Woojin agrees with him the whole time as they eat.

Hyeongseob spots bright colors on Woojin’s wrist, and he squints his eyes to get a better glimpse. Woojin follows where his eyes are focused, still chewing his food, and smiles.

“This is from my sister. She’s eight,” Woojin explains as he pulls back his sleeve to reveal a row of colorful plastic beads. There are yellow, pink, orange and blue beads in the shapes of stars and hearts and flowers, strung together to create a bracelet around Woojin’s wrist. “Making jewelry is her thing now, I guess. Some time ago it was ballet, and then it was braiding everything that even remotely looks like string. I had to shave my head just to get rid of her.”

Hyeongseob giggles at that. “It’s pretty,” he says honestly. He runs his fingers lightly against the bracelet. The childish designs clash against the color of Woojin’s shirt, but the colors do show up nicely against Woojin’s tanned skin. Pretty indeed.

“Isn’t it?” Woojin smiles proudly, going back to his meal. “It’s really special.”

Woojin tells him about his family in Busan, his younger siblings being the ones he misses the most. He seems to dote on them and is always happy to receive care packages with hand-written letters he can’t read very well due to the messy handwriting of children still learning how to write. He calls them every week and it recharges him from the stress of university life.

“Sorry I got too talkative,” Woojin says sheepishly when they’re returning their polished-off plates to the cafeteria ladies.

Hyeongseob shakes his head. “I like learning about you.”

“I like learning things about you, too,” Woojin says, licking his snaggletooth in between a smile.

Oh. Woojin is cute. Really cute.

Hyeongseob wonders what the non-verbal cue of Woojin licking his snaggletooth means.

 

-

 

Woojin adds him on Instagram and Kakao Talk through lunch period when they’ve all decided that they had to be friends on social media platforms if they were friends in real life as well. Hyeongseob flips through the Instagram posts, admiring the short dance clips Woojin posts on his feed out loud (which flusters Woojin).

“Oh, you teach kids?” Hyeongseob asks when he comes across a video of youngsters doing a pretty good cover of a BTS song.

“Yeah, part-time work,” Woojin explains, somewhat embarrassed. He pokes at his vegetables with his fork. “I don’t earn much but it’s a lot of fun.”

“That’s really cool,” Hyeongseob says in awe.

“You should come watch his kids’ recitals sometime, Woojin does a pretty good job teaching them and he needs a boyfriend,” Jihoon says, and he laughs about it with Haknyeon.

“Wow, Woojin has abs,” Hyeongseob exclaims absently when he comes across a beach picture of their group of friends.

“Woojin has abs and no boyfriend,” Haknyeon howls with laughter.

“You have neither,” Jihoon points out.

“Hey, I thought we were on the same team today?” Haknyeon whines.

-

“Woojin really isn’t dating anyone, if you’re interested,” Jihoon greets him one morning near the end of a work week.

“What?” Hyeongseob looks up from the Twice performance video he was watching on his phone as he was waiting for the other employees to come to work. He’s pretty sure his ears are red. “Why?”

“Why, as in why is Woojin single or why as in why am I telling you this?” Jihoon asks with a yawn as he sets his bag down on the shelf for interns.

Hyeongseob thinks about that for a while. “Both,” he decides, Twice video forgotten.

“Well, you guys get along really well and you look cute together,” Jihoon explains. “I also really want to laugh at Haknyeon when he becomes the only single one in our group.”

Hyeongseob wonders if Jihoon means that he’s already part of their friend group or he just means their group of friends outside of this internship.

“Want to have drinks with us this weekend?” Jihoon asks some time later when it’s almost lunch time. “Maybe somewhere near my place because my boyfriend gets worried if I get home late.” He nibbles on his lower lip, like having a boyfriend who worries about him is something to be embarrassed about.

Hyeongseob doesn’t really drink, most of his friends being too young to be interested in drinking (aside from Justin who thinks he’s cool and badass), or too health-conscious like Jungjung. So he doesn’t really know what he’s thinking when he agrees enthusiastically.

“Maybe you can make out with Woojin there and then you guys can date for real,” Jihoon suggests.

Hyeongseob thinks about that possibility for a while, and then decides that Woojin is someone he would enjoy making out with.

“You’re thinking about it,” Jihoon teases him, and Hyeongseob slaps his hands over his ears. The redness is giving him away again.

-

 

Hyeongseob is apparently a lightweight. Which he had no idea about until right now, at this exact moment when he’s hurling the contents of his dinner into the toilet of the bar they’re drinking at unglamorously. He hears a knock on the bathroom door just before his stomach heaves again, and he barely hears Woojin’s voice calling him.

“Hyeongseob. You okay?”

“No,” he croaks out in response once he feels like there is nothing more to puke. He flushes the toilet and stands up to wash up at the sink, taking extra care with his mouth and face. He then checks his clothes. Thankfully, he didn’t get any vomit on them. He also had a container of mints that he brought specifically in case Woojin wanted to make out with him tonight (thank you Park Jihoon for drilling the idea into his head). He pops a mint into his mouth and chews on it, the mint replacing the disgusting taste in his mouth, and he checks his reflection one last time before getting out.

Woojin is leaning on the wall outside the bathroom waiting for him. “Are you okay?” he asks again. He looks incredibly guilty, broad shoulders slumped. “Sorry, I didn’t know you didn’t drink. We shouldn’t have invited you if we knew you would feel terrible.”

“It’s fine,” Hyeongseob waves him off. He still feels a little woozy, and his chest feels a little warm for some reason at the way Woojin is looking him over with worry, but otherwise he’s fine. “I think I just need a bit of fresh air.”

Woojin nods and takes his arm, pulling him towards the exit of the bar, mumbling to their group of friends that they’re going out. Jihoon shoots them a worried look and Haknyeon wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, which Hyeongseob would have scowled, except he feels a little too weak for friendly banter right now.

The crisp night air does wonders to Hyeongseob and he feels ultimately better the moment they step outside. He stretches his arms out and takes a deep breath before sitting at the curb beside Woojin.

“I hope you feel better,” Woojin says solemnly. He fiddles with his thumbs, staring at them instead of Hyeongseob.

Hyeongseob finds it endearing how Woojin feels so guilty about him having a shit alcohol tolerance, even though it wasn’t his fault at all, and he finds in himself the alcohol-induced courage to lean his head on Woojin’s shoulder.

“You know, it’s pretty funny how I brought mints in case I get a kiss from you but instead I needed them because I threw up,” Hyeongseob giggles. He closes his eyes and snuggles more comfortably against Woojin.

Woojin is silent, and Hyeongseob doesn’t see how red his face is until Woojin pushes him away gently.

“What?” Hyeongseob whines, wanting to be settled against Woojin comfortably again.

Woojin leans in to kiss his cheek, lips wet and a little chapped, before pulling Hyeongseob back against his shoulder somewhat roughly. “I hope that was okay.”

It was more than okay. But if Hyeongseob was to be honest: less than great, because great would be making out with Woojin right now, and Hyeongseob was not about to have their first kiss right after he just puked his guts out.

“It’s not that I think it’s gross to kiss you after you just threw up,” Woojin explains as if he’d just read Hyeongseob’s mind. “I just don’t want us to kiss under the influence of alcohol.”

Aww, Woojin was a romantic. Who wanted a nice, romantically sober kiss. Hyeongseob feels warm inside.

“It __is__ gross, Woojin,” he laughs, settling for linking their arms together instead. The kiss would have to wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was going to be two-chapter thing but i'll make it 3 instead rip


End file.
